infant microbiome

The Infant Microbiome Development: Mom Matters

The Microbiome, the host of life separate from us but within us, is another clue that we are to live in accordance with nature's rules rather than invent and impose or own. The human microbiome is important in its role as a filter between us and the outside world. The microbiota on the skin, in the airways, and particularly in the gut determine our exposure to the environment and what will enter our cells. The microbiome essentially begins at birth.

Let us begin with the conclusion. These 3 modern interventions interfere with the healthy development of the infant’s microbiome, including the development of a healthy digestive tract and immune system:

C-section infant delivery

Antibiotic use just before birth or early in life

Formula feeding

These 3 modern interventions “alter the infant microbiome and may be major factors shaping a new microbiome landscape in human history.” And this is not a good thing. (See summary paragraph 1 and reference below.)

Although there is increasing evidence (still not widely acknowledged) that the fetus may receive some of its microbiome while still in the placenta, the variety and number of organisms forming the microbiome of the child largely come from passage through the birth canal and then by breast feeding.

In the case of a C-section, the infant will pick up microbes from the people and environment around them.

Bottle fed babies will have a less diverse microbiome than breast fed babies, who will receive not only the mom’s microbiome, but other immune support.

A hospital birth will result in fewer species in the baby’s microbiome than a home birth.

Antibiotics before birth damage mom’s microbiome, and after birth damage the infant’s microbiome; multiple antibiotic treatments can wipe out the good microbes altogether.

A healthy infant microbiome has a huge impact on the health of the developing immune system, which is feeble at birth. As the gut microbiota grow and diversify, the immune system offers a more consistent and balanced response to outside influences. Intestinal Permeability (aka Leaky Gut) as a factor is supported by research. This is a major hypothesis of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in her Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) book (2004; p. 18): “In a human body the absence of good bacteria always coincides with bad bacteria getting out of control….the whole structure of gut epithelium (cells actually absorbing nutrition) changes, starting a process of pathology (disease) developing. The villi (coating the small intestine) degenerate and become unable to digest and absorb food properly, leading to malabsorption, nutritional deficiencies, and food intolerances.”

The deterioration of the quality of the intestinal lining results in excessive intestinal permeability. This leaky gut allows undigested food particles, bacteria, toxins, etc. to enter the blood stream. These cause damage and create immune reactions in other locations. To the extent that zonulin is activated, further deteriorating both the intestinal lining and the blood brain barrier, these substances now also cross the blood brain barrier. This toxicity wreaks havoc on the developing brain, possibly resulting in diagnoses along the autism spectrum. When this occurs in an adult, possibly resulting in anything from brain fog to mental disorder diagnoses.

The “idea that the first bacteria we encounter are crucial to our immune development” has plenty of evidence:

Antibiotic use in the first year of life increases the likelihood of Inflammatory Bowel Disease;

Children growing up on farms tend to have fewer allergies;

Animal experiments show neonatal antibiotics increased asthma;

Early exposure to gut microbes protects from later autoimmune diseases.

David Kohn’s article in The Atlantic in 2015 gives an easily readable overview of the wide range impact of gut microbes, including how people think and feel. Autism, anxiety, depression, stress, and a variety of other aspects of modern life are directly influenced by our microbial friends and enemies.

​ Again, the Microbiome, the host of life separate from us but within us, is another clue that we are to live in accordance with nature's rules rather than invent and impose or own.

Notes:1. “Vaginal delivery and breastfeeding are evolutionarily adaptive for mammals and therefore are paramount to human newborn development and health. Common perinatal interventions like C-section, antibiotic use, and formula feeding alter the infant microbiome and may be major factors shaping a new microbiome landscape in human history. While mechanistic questions remain (Box 1), epidemiological evidence suggests that these impacts on the early microbiome assembly are associated with metabolic and immune pathologies. Even if antibiotic use, C-section delivery, and formula feeding are only marginally associated with disease risk at the individual level, the widespread use of these practices in the USA and other countries may contribute to considerable disease burden at the population level [126]. Therefore, strategies to prevent perturbation of the healthy infant microbiome and restore it after alterations should be researched to help curb the epidemic trends of metabolic and immune diseases.”Source: From “The infant microbiome development: mom matters”Noel T. Mueller,1,2 Elizabeth Bakacs,3 Joan Combellick,4 Zoya Grigoryan,3 and Maria G. Dominguez-Bello3Trends Mol Med. 2015 Feb; 21(2): 109–117.Published online 2014 Dec 11. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2014.12.002View entire study onlineAlso: “Our studies demonstrate that several factors such as caesarian section, early life environmental microbial exposures and neonatal mode of nutrition, amongst others, play a key role in shaping the infant gut microbiome, immune development and susceptibility to allergic disease development.”2. “A chronic leaky gut condition, interfacing with the individual genetic predisposition, is able to trigger an immune-mediated reaction, as it happens in celiac disease (Catassi and Fasano 2008) or it is hypothesized in Diabetes Mellitus type 1 (Vaarala 2011). It has been hypothesized that, besides genetic and environmental factors, loss of intestinal barrier function is necessary to develop autoimmunity in general (Visser et al. 2009).” This same resource also “notes the “absence of a correlation between GI symptoms and altered IPT” (intestinal permeability)…i.e. intestinal permeability often has no recognizable GI symptoms. (emphasis mine)Next article